Problem solving with Bread

Jesus taught his disciples through problems – and he will teach you the same way.

He took his disciples away to a remote side of Lake Galilee for a time of instruction and reflection. Opposition to him from the religious authorities was growing and he knew that his death was only months away. He needed time with the disciples to prepare them. They were still far short of understanding fully who he was. They urgently needed to fully and deeply believe in all that Jesus is. These were frenetic times, they had to get away from the people pressing in on Jesus to witness and try to experience the miracles he was performing on the sick. Crossing Galilee, they found a quiet spot on a hill overlooking the lake. I can imagine the disciples lying back on the grass, relieved to rest in the sunshine. But Jesus had more serious work to do. (Time off is good. Leisure and rest time is necessary. But be very, very careful. Too much rest can make you very dull spiritually. It can also lead to temptation. If you get some time off – set some powerful spiritual objectives. Aim for some meditation, some prayer, some deep reflection on what Jesus wants to do with your life next.)

It was Jesus who saw them first - the crowd making its way on foot around the shores of the lake. He saw them while they were still a long way off. He welcomed them and spent the afternoon teaching the crowd about God’s kingdom and healing people until late in the day (Luke 9.11,12). (It may be that the disciples did not feel quite so hospitable!). Then Jesus asked Philip how he thought they should feed them.

This was a test – there was of course no uncertainty in Jesus’ mind as to how to feed them. But Jesus was teaching his disciples through problems. This was why he had brought them there. In many ways the answer to the problem of feeding the large crowd was obvious - Jesus could feed them. If he could raise a dead girl and make blind people see and drive legions of demons out of possessed people - then providing some food for a crowd wasn’t too difficult for him.

However, it seems for the disciples (and us) that even though we receive repeated help from Jesus in our lives, our first reaction to our next problem is paralysis. We feel overwhelmed by the circumstances. Like Andrew, we might be quite cynical and point out that our small resources only make the problem seem even more insurmountable - five pita breads and two small smoked fish won’t go far in feeding a crowd of many hundreds!

Jesus’ challenge to Philip and the others reveals one of the ways he trains us. He unfolds problems to us that we cannot solve. He challenges us. Of course we don’t tend to welcome these challenges and at first we might be anxious or even upset by them. Jesus intends that problems should both point out our lack and invite our faith in him to supply the need. The nature of the problem that Jesus challenged his disciples with that day was one of ratio: A very large hungry crowd of more than 5,000-10,000 persons, versus 12 disciples with no personal resources to help them. How were they supposed to meet such enormous need?

Of course they could have just walked away, but there was an underlying imperative, an inescapable expectation that the business of God’s kingdom is to rescue and bless men, women and children. Mark gives an insight into the reason why Jesus wanted the crowd fed: He saw the great crowd, and he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. Mark 6. Jesus saw the crowd as desperately needy of leadership and protection and he had come to provide it – he is the Good Shepherd. They were being oppressed and led astray by their personal sin, by greedy unjust leaders and by Satan, the evil one. Jesus wanted to lead them to safety. He did not want to disperse the crowd but rather, to settle, organise and feed them, so that they clearly understood his invitation to believe in him as the leader God had appointed for them.

He wanted them to understand that his leadership was absolutely opposite to the leadership of men who wanted people to serve them. The Son of Man came not to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. Mark 10.45

This supply problem that Jesus challenged the disciples with was supposed to draw out their belief in him. Instead, Philip was immediately overwhelmed by the size of the problem. He looked at the crowd, did some quick mental calculations and worked out that it would take more than half a year’s salary to give even a snack to each person. Instead of his mind being filled with the greatness of Jesus’ grace and capability, he was overwhelmed with the magnitude of the problem. Then Andrew spoke up, perhaps ironically, to point out that he had found a boy with a packed lunch comprising five small pita breads and two small smoked fish - a nice healthy lunch for a boy, but woefully inadequate for a crowd now swelled to way over 5,000 persons.

The disciples missed the opportunity to trust Jesus, so he took over the reins and the crowd was fed superabundantly by miracle. My God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4.19. He just created bread and fish in his hand as he kept breaking it off and handing it out. The jaded disciples also ate well. [Here was a reminder that when we seek God’s kingdom and righteousness first (as Jesus was doing) all the other basic things we need will be provided too.] The large amount left over was gathered up and taken away for tomorrow’s meal - to remind the disciples that the miraculous provision of food was not going to be the norm. This was an extraordinary provision – a one-off – they would normally be getting their food through working for it. This was a sign. It pointed to the total sufficiency there is in Christ. Later, John put it this way: Whoever has the Son has life. Whoever does not have the Son does not have life. 1 John 5.

The Lord trains us using problems. The food problem highlighted a number of issues. It brought out the tiredness and frustration of the disciples at having to go ‘another round’ with the crowd before they could have a rest. It tested their love for the crowd and whether they understood how important it was that the people could recognise Jesus as their Messiah. But the main thing this problem brought into focus was the small helping the big. In the disciples’ future (and ours) Jesus’ followers are a minority called to bless the vast majority. Right through history, God’s people have always been numerically the smaller group. God deliberately works this way and here is the reason why:

For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”

The ratio on the other side of the lake that day was 10,000:12 (excluding Jesus). How do 12 bless 10,000? The solution then and now is to believe in Jesus Christ. Rather than shrink down our expectation of what can be done, we need to enlarge our conception of who Jesus Christ is.

Problems are designed to define our incapacity and direct our faith towards Christ’s capacity. Philip and Andrew should have answered Jesus’ question about where to get food for 10,000 by responding: “We’re not at all sure, Lord, but if you will it, then it can be done and we are ready to be your servants. Give us your instructions.”

Miracles are Signs

John 6
Miracles mean something
Jesus’ miracles are signs. A sign points to something. Jesus’ miracles point to something about him and his mission. They invite faith in him. So, as you learn this morning about these miraculous signs – creating bread and fish on the spot for a massive crowd – walking on the surface of the water – remember this: You are being invited to understand how magnificently powerful and capable Jesus Christ is – and commit to him.

The aim of Jesus throughout the two days over which the events in John 6 occurred was to get people to believe in him. What does that mean? Unlike us, he certainly didn’t need people to believe in him to make him feel better about himself. Nor did he need people to believe in him so that his work could be a success - as if he is waiting for us to help him out. Jesus wanted people to believe in him so that they could be rescued from the crushing defeat of death. Any help you get in your life, miraculous or not, is designed to prompt you to believe in Jesus Christ so you can live forever. The amazing blindness that sin works on us, limits us to thinking that things like food and good health are more important than making peace with God and having eternal life. This study tracks the ways Jesus works to prise open our faith and get us to believe in him. In particular – to believe in him for rescue from everything that is damaging you and in particular the sin that causes the final damage which is death and an eternity under God’s deep and wrathful disapproval. He wants you to believe in him so that you can share in the brilliance of a forever life - tasting and experiencing the mind-blowing, ever-expanding thrill and beauty all that his Father lavishes on him.

GOD IS FOR US

God is FOR us.
Therefore none of these things can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord:

Death can’t separate me – because my manner and time of dying is totally under God’s control and when it happens I will not taste death but slip from discomfort (even excruciating pain) to spring up into the light, comfort and knowledge that the face of Christ will immediately greet me with.

Life can’t separate me – because even though life might be too hard, too scary, too troubled or too distressing, it is not worth comparing with the glory that is coming towards me like an unstoppable nuclear blast.

Angels (good or bad) can’t separate me – because Jesus Christ is as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs (Heb 1.4). The Son uses the angels as his messengers (Psalm 104.4 He makes his messengers winds, his ministers a flaming fire.) They must serve his purpose and his purpose is to keep me bound to him by love.

Rulers can’t separate me – because the only rule as far and as long as Christ determines. The moment Nebuchadnezzar went too far and thought of himself invincible, God took away his sanity and he grovelled on the grass like a wild animal. Not too long from now, Robert Mugabe, the scourge of his people, will succumb to age. His mind will turn and his breath will fade, because Christ rules rulers.

Present things can’t separate me – because the current social, political and atmospheric climates are orchestrated by Christ who sustains the universe by the word of his power (Heb 1.3). Nothing in the present time is running out of control; everything is wisely supervised to provide the best conditions to bring out of the world all those God has prepared for his kingdom.

Things to come can’t separate me – because although the future is not known to me, Christ has his hand on the scroll. He is unrolling the master plan unerringly. He has revealed in his Word that he will be personally bringing the current state of things to a close and that he will reveal his kingdom for all to see and then renovate the earth and universe.

Powers can’t separate me – because even malicious powers such as evil spirits and Satan himself can only act within the lines marked out by Christ. While they have some temporary influence to engage with sinners and prove the destructive ruin brought about by sin, they have no authority over Christians. Little children you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. 1 John 4.4.

Height can’t separate me – because although Christ dwells in the heights and his thoughts far, far above my thoughts

[For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts. (Isaiah 55.9)] – even so, his word is near me and in my heart (Rom 10.8). He is a friend that is closer than a brother (Prov 18.24). Jesus prayed that it would be: I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one. John 17.23. Jesus is not too high so I cannot reach him. Do not say, “Who will ascend into heaven? (that is, to bring Christ down). He came down and close!

Depth cannot separate me – because although I often sin and reveal the pit from which I have been dug (Isaiah 51.1,2) God has lifted me up and placed me on a rock. He drew me up from the pit of destruction, out of the miry bog, and set my feet upon a rock, making my steps secure. Psalm 40.2. Christ has already gone to the bottom of the grave to ensure that I do not end up there. God’s arm is not too short to save. Behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened, that it cannot save,or his ear dull, that it cannot hear. Isaiah 59.1. My unworthiness cannot separate me from the love of Christ. Even the deepest part of my depression cannot separate me from the love of Christ.

CONCLUSION:

Nothing in all creation can separate me from the love of God in Christ Jesus my Lord.

So let us throw off every weight and sin that clings so closely and let us run with endurance the race marked out for us – looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, despising its shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God! Heb 12.1,2

An Unbroken Chain

God’s actions for believers are an unbreakable chain

( Romans 8.30)

Once God decides what will happen, it is as secure as if the end result had already occurred! God’s decision about his people was a three-way conference between the Father, the Son and the Spirit – a decision which makes your position in God’s purpose completely secure. Once the God-head had decided who you would be and planned out the circumstances in which you would come to birth, the time and place you would exist (including your parents – good and bad) – from that point you were secure. Because those God knew beforehand, he pre-planned lives for them. He also called you at the time when you had come into the world and were alive with a mind and will in which the Spirit could influence you. Having called you, he justified you – that means he declared you acceptable based on Jesus’ death and resurrection for you. Having justified you, you have the first glow of glory arising in your life and you can be assured that your glorification will continue. A person is glorified as they come under the influence of Jesus Christ. In the future, the more of Christ’s infinite glory you begin to experience, the more your personal capacity to receive it will grow. You will never grow to be Christ’s equal, but you will continue to grow bigger the more of Christ’s bigness is revealed for you.

We Want his Will

Romans 8.26-30

The will of God always works out well for those who love him (v28)

Prayer is ALL about finding God’s will, submitting to God’s will and valuing his will above all else. Prayer is about getting ourselves aligned with his will so that we can maximise the glory that goes to Jesus Christ. We will be most satisfied and fulfilled when Jesus Christ is most glorified in our lives. We will never be satisfied by personal fame, beauty or wealth. All of these things are passing away. Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride in possessions—is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever. 1 John 2.15-17

You NEED the will of God – it is what you hunger for – and to try to satisfy that hunger with decaying things is death. Prayer is about asking, seeking and knocking until God grants you his WILL. Once we are aligned with the will of God revealed in Jesus Christ for us – then we are secure no matter what blasts us.

Verse 28 is probably the best anchor we have been given when it seems we are going to be blown away. It is a simple but VERY strong statement offered for our faith to grasp hold of. The verse says these things:

§ All things to turn out for our good - if we love God.

§ All things ‘work together’, which means that even the most random or distressing events are part of God’s coherent plan.

§ God is in complete control, overseeing and managing all the component parts of his big plan.

§ Those who love God are the people who were called by him to be blessed by participating in his purpose.

We can link these promises to the teaching that the Spirit helps us in our weaknesses by supporting and interpreting our prayers and longings to God. All our Spirit-led prayers direct us towards God’s big purpose. Whatever circumstances we meet, whether hard or comfortable, they are not random outbreaks but threads that God is weaving together into his big and magnificent picture.

Prayer is an expression of our love for God. We pray because we WANT to be right with God. We don’t want to offend him by making mistakes or neglecting his priority which is to maximise the reputation of his Son. So the Spirit helps us to express our love for God by praying that we will be at the very centre of his will in everything. It is encouraging that because we love God the Spirit confirms that we have been called by God to a place in his amazing purpose. (The Spirit witnesses to our spirit so that we call God ‘Abba, Father’.)

We are able to live with limitless confidence that everything is under our Father’s complete control. We don’t see the unexpected happenings in our lives – even the tragic ones – as random accidents. We know and confess in our prayers (with the Spirit’s help) that God is all-wise, all-seeing and all-powerful, and that he is controlling even evil so that it will not damage us in the long run. The Spirit helps us to pray for God’s will and to recognise it when it comes along – even when that road passes through extreme temporary discomfort – even the ‘valley of the shadow of death!’ God has a bigger and better vision for us than simply existing for 90 years in the world with the minimum possible trouble!

Turning Groans into Prayers

Romans 8.26-30

The Spirit helps us by exposing the mistakes and the ignorance that undermine our prayers. James said, You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.(James 4.2,3). The Holy Spirit helps us by challenging our unwillingness to ask God for what he knows we need. He challenges our wrong asking; the self-centred motives that want God to give us what will satisfy our world-centred wants. This is very valuable help! What if we kept on with our ignorant attitude to prayer? What if we never asked for the very things that would satisfy us beyond measure, and so missed out on them? What if we kept hammering away in our prayers pleading for wrong things, unwise things, shallow dying things, things that would ultimately damage our own lives and others? The Spirit works in believers to avert us from insulting God by using prayer as if it were a lucky dip in which we kept plunging our hands until we pulled out the thing we really wanted.

The Holy Spirit helps us to know how to pray for the right things. We frequently find ourselves in situations where we do not know how to pray or what to ask God for. We cannot clearly see what the right course of action is. We do not know what to pray for. Paul was in this situation in jail. He wrote to the Philippians about his dilemma: It is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be at all ashamed, but that with full courage now as always Christ will be honoured in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labour for me. Yet which I shall choose I cannot tell. I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better. But to remain in the flesh is more necessary on your account. Convinced of this, I know that I will remain and continue with you all, for your progress and joy in the faith, so that in me you may have ample cause to glory in Christ Jesus, because of my coming to you again. (Philippians 1.20-26). When Paul began to pray about his situation, he wasn’t sure whether it would bring more glory to Christ for him to give up his life for the gospel, or live on and suffer the opposition. He was hard pressed between the two ideas. The Holy Spirit helped him in his praying. Perhaps at times he was unable to put into meaningful words what he felt. But the Holy Spirit helped him by praying to the Father for him; turning his groaning into prayers that matched God’s will for him.

The Holy Spirit helps us by taking our inarticulate deep-seated longings and turning them into prayers that match the Father’s will for us. It is encouraging to consider that the sighs and groans we feel within us when we are faced with hard choices and impossible circumstances are inhabited by the Holy Spirit. He takes them over and expresses what we need to ask. He does so in the intimate language that the Father and the Spirit share. The Father knows what the mind of the Spirit is (27).Are you offering your groanings to God, or are you turning your groanings into moanings and complaining to others – perhaps your wife, or kids, or workmates. Are you angry at your confusion and becoming a cynical and grumpy influence on others, instead of offering your groanings humbly to God by the Spirit?

In summary, you and I can rely on the Holy Spirit to stir up a need to pray; avert us from self-centred praying; and overcome the deep-seated ignorance we have about what to ask for. We need to pray but we are crippled by weakness went we try. So we depend on our Helper to support our prayers. And even when we cannot find any words to describe or express the longings we feel, our Helper is right there to convert these sighs and groans into words that are perfectly in tune with the will of God. Therefore, we should no longer excuse ourselves for not praying, nor should we blame our uncertainty about what to ask for. We should put words to what we can and offer up our sighs and groans when we cannot find the right words. Our Helper will do the rest.

Out of the swamp

Romans 8.26-30

The Spirit helps us to get around to praying.

The sin of procrastination is never more embarrassingly laid bare than in our failure to pray. The Spirit helps us by convicting us and driving us towards prayer. He shuts up the wrong options to us. He slams doors shut. He steals away miserable, preoccupying trinkets. He exposes our poverty in godliness to us. He drains away our shallow pride until we see it for the muddy pit that it really is. I once nearly broke my neck by diving headfirst into what I thought was a lake but turned out to be a shallow swamp brimful of sediment. God challenged Israel about the danger of shallow pools:

For my people have committed two evils:
they have forsaken me,
the fountain of living waters,
and hewed out cisterns for themselves,
broken cisterns that can hold no water. (Jeremiah 2.13)

The Spirit helps us by revealing how shallow and polluted our independent efforts are. He leads us away from our nasty little swamps to the springs of living water. He helps us to repent of the enormous evil whereby we overlook God, the source of everything good and try elsewhere. Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. (James 1.16,17). The Spirit helps us to realise that we MUST pray. He wisely administers God’s discipline in our lives so we wake up from our ignorance and cry out to God. Jesus says: ‘I know your works. You have the reputation of being alive, but you are dead. Wake up, and strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have not found your works complete in the sight of my God. Remember, then, what you received and heard. Keep it, and repent. If you will not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what hour I will come against you’. (Revelation 3.1-3). The Spirit wakes us up to pray. Who will complain about the man who rushes into his bedroom to wake him and get him out of a house on fire? Who will roll over and say ‘Go away’? The Spirit is that man. He stirs us up to leave our burning house and seek safety in Christ. We may be in dire trouble and yet be so spiritually drowsy that we fail to pray. Jesus said to his disciples, “Sit here, while I go over there and pray.” And taking with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, he began to be sorrowful and troubled. Then he said to them, “My soul is very sorrowful, even to death; remain here, and watch with me.” And going a little farther he fell on his face and prayed, saying, “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.” And he came to the disciples and found them sleeping. And he said to Peter, “So, could you not watch with me one hour? Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” Again, for the second time, he went away and prayed, “My Father, if this cannot pass unless I drink it, your will be done.” And again he came and found them sleeping, for their eyes were heavy. So, leaving them again, he went away and prayed for the third time, saying the same words again. Matthew 26.36-44

The Spirit helps us to get around to praying – without his help we will always drift away from prayer. And he especially helps us when he puts our individual sticks together and stirs up a roaring fire. Personal prayer is vital – it is the ubiquitous air you breathe in and out - but a blaze of power, joy and hope is especially kindled when we pray together.

Relying on God Brings Delight

WHAT RUTH & BOAZ TEACH US

Consider what godliness means for ordinary living.

Ruth and Boaz provide excellent examples of godliness in daily living.

Ruth’s godliness showed in these ways:

• Total commitment to God once she found him – even at the cost of another quite attractive future.
• Willingness to work. It was in the way of her work that she found Boaz. She worked hard to meet her own and Naomi’s needs – she proved her godliness by not being lazy and self-pitying.
• Accepting advice. She accepted Naomi’s advice and was willing to listen. She was not rebellious and determined to follow her own ideas.
• Pure in her approach to men. She did not flirt but could recognise a godly man when she saw him. She set her heart on a man who loved and served God.
• She was willing to wait for God to things out for her and Boaz to be together.

Boaz’s godliness showed in these ways:

• A leader and yet humble. He mixed freely with his people and even served them. He was in charge but he wasn’t aggressive or overbearing or angry.
• He was a real man – strong and meek together.
• He looked out for the needy and looked for ways to help them – he felt a responsibility towards those who needed a hand up.
• He treated Ruth with kindness and respect and encouraged her faith in God – he talked openly about spiritual things to the woman he was interested in.
• He had self-control to wait until marriage before having sexual relations with Ruth. He honoured God’s establishment of marriage as the proper and safe setting for intimacy between a man and a woman and the raising of children.
• He arranged things out in the open, trusting God for their outcome, rather than trying to sort things out with secret deals.
• He acknowledged that it was God who was at work to find him the perfect partner.
• His leadership in the community was based on their respect for his godliness.

Seek a husband or wife who shares your faith in God and your determination to be godly in everything. Sex without commitment is a shallow and brief pleasure that is deeply disappointing. Sex within a God-centred marriage becomes a small but very fulfilling means of expressing the joy there is in love. Sex in God-centred marriage brings children into a safe and happy home. Ruth and Boaz’s love story breathes the joy of anticipation and the value of doing things in the right order. Their love story stands in total contrast to the cheaply given sex and the serial partners of our permissive society. Ruth and Boaz stand out as intensely in love, respectful and sensitive in communication, powerfully self-controlled, sold on righteousness, delighted in anticipation and joyful in commitment.

Keep your eye on God’s prize. Don’t be distracted into grabbing short-term benefits or thrills. Live with the long term in mind and although in the short term there may be some apparent set-backs and losses, you will be assured of long-lasting (eternal) joy. This is the beautiful thing about righteousness – it cannot be extinguished. Imaginations and possessions eventually fade to nostalgia and evaporate, but God’s righteous purpose lasts forever. Included in God’s righteousness are his faithfulness and his immutability (that is, his unchangeable permanence). Consider what this means for investing your faith in the Son of God – your future is established in God himself, not in a place or things that might change, rust, be stolen or fade. God is eternal and nothing can cancel his plans. Ruth and Boaz’s story teaches us to trust that God will bring us through the set-backs and upsets and apparent losses. Abandoning our faith is not an option.

Consider Ruth and Boaz - Was there ever a happier outcome for two people? Trust God with your life’s outcomes, for at some points the things he calls you to avoid may seem very attractive and you might feel the cost of being holy is too great to pay. Remember Ruth. Remember Boaz. Remember even Naomi. Don’t throw away your faith.

Hebrews 10.35 Therefore do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. 36 For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised. 37 For,

“Yet a little while,
and the coming one will come and will not delay;
38 but my righteous one shall live by faith,
and if he shrinks back,
my soul has no pleasure in him.”

39 But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls.

Boaz and Ruth

Ruth 3 & 4

Naomi recognises what has happened; that Ruth has received the attention of Boaz and that he is a family redeemer, qualified to marry Ruth. So she gives Ruth advice on how to respond to Boaz’s attention. She must go and meet him to ask him to be her redeemer – that is, to marry her and take on Naomi’s family land.
Ruth goes back to the threshing floor – a paved area near the fields where the harvested barley is beaten out and the grains separated from the chaff. The workers (and Boaz) would have a ‘feed’ at the end of a day’s work and then sleep on the heaps of grain until morning. Ruth stays around the fringes of the people and watches where Boaz lies down for his sleep at the end of the evening.
Once he is asleep, Ruth goes over and lies down at his feet. At midnight as he turns over, his foot kicks Ruth and he wakes up, startled to find her there. Ruth identifies herself and makes it known to him that she is asking him to take her under his wing as family redeemer.
Boaz responds nobly. He does not initiate sexual activity with Ruth, though the temptation might have been strong.
It was an emotional moment for both of them, as their feelings for each other were recognised and expressed for the first time. But Boaz did not touch Ruth because he was committed to acting to please God. This was not just a private moment between the two of them.
There were other public matters that had to be resolved; in particular, Boaz knew that there was another man more qualified by closer relation to be the family redeemer and to marry Ruth.
Boaz assures Ruth of his commitment to her and his willingness to redeem and marry her if it can be done justly and it is the Lord’s will.
Ruth remains at Boaz’a feet until morning and left while it was not yet light. Boaz sends her off with a gift of grain for Naomi. That was Boaz’s message back to Naomi that he was willing to marry Ruth if it could be arranged.
Naomi counsels Ruth to be patient and be assured that Boaz would work hard to settle the matter immediately. She knows more than she is letting on.
Meantime, Boaz goes to find the man who has a closer relationship with Naomi’s husband so he can resolve who has the right to marry Ruth. With some of the city elders, he begins talks with the man, informing him that he has the right to purchase Naomi’s land and that if he does not want to then he will do so himself. The man was quick to say that he wanted the land. Possibly too quick, because Boaz goes on to talk about Ruth. The man immediately loses interest because he cannot marry Ruth (perhaps he was already married, or it could have been that he did not want to risk his family inheritance going to children he would have with Ruth).
Boaz confirms that he will take up the role of family redeemer and the men exchange sandals in the presence of the elders, to confirm that the arrangement is sealed. The elders confirm the transaction and call God’s blessing to be on Boaz and Ruth.
You can only imagine the nervous wait by Ruth that day. But eventually Boaz comes to bring the good news that they can be married. Their faithfulness to God and to each other is rewarded.
Ruth bears a son.
Naomi is blessed to be closely involved in the raising of the boy, Obed.
The women of the town, who once pitied Naomi for her ruin, now celebrate with her God’s goodness in restoring her life and giving her such a daughter-in-law as Ruth (worth more than seven sons they say!) and a redeemer like Boaz.
Obed is the grandfather of King David. Jesus on his human side is descended from David.
Only now do we begin to notice how Ruth and Boaz’s lives have such a strong connection with God’s big plan. No Ruth, no Obed, no Obed, no David, no David, no Mary and no Jesus.

The Super-Ordinary in the Ordinary

Ruth 3&4

Remember, this is a story with no supernatural interventions – it is ordinary people through difficult circumstances receiving God’s help. These ordinary people find joy in God in ordinary family circumstances. But these ordinary circumstances are connected to bigger and more lasting realities. Someone wrote:

The book of Ruth wants to teach us that God's purpose for the life of his people is to connect us to something far greater than ourselves. God wants us to know that when we follow him, our lives always mean more than we think they do. For the Christian there is always a connection between the ordinary events of life and the stupendous work of God in history. Everything we do in obedience to God, no matter how small, is significant. It is part of a cosmic mosaic which God is painting to display the greatness of his power and wisdom to the world and to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places. The deep satisfaction of the Christian life is that it is not given over to trifles. Serving a widowed mother-in-law, gleaning in a field, falling in love, having a baby—for the Christian these things are all connected to eternity. They are part of something so much bigger than they seem.

Following Christ won’t necessarily take you away from the ordinary responsibilities of life – but it will definitely transform the ordinary into the extraordinary. You will begin to see the way your personal growth, your daily experiences, the people you interact with, the crises you face and your entire life story – is connected with the big picture that God is working out. So, do not despise the day of small beginnings! Do not think that small sins and the details of your life are unimportant. How and why you act in those small details is having a huge impact on the big outcomes of your life. Ruth’s story confirms this.

Reflect on Ruth and Naomi

Here are some ways to reflect on Ruth’s story:

1. Naomi and Ruth’s story teaches us about the way God uses even our grimmest experiences to create more room in our lives for his blessing. It is a mistake to think that anything is out of God’s control. His sovereignty over everything (including trouble and evil) is for our good. God is working even in the worst of times in our lives or nation. Ruth shows that God is still working even when the majority of people who ought to be serving him have grown cold in heart. He works in quite ordinary circumstances.

2. It also illustrates the way in which Jesus is our redeemer; how he oversees the circumstances that will bring us to a place of safety and prosperity within his family. Boaz fleshes out for us the strong protective love that Jesus has for each of us.

3. God took care of Ruth because she had come to shelter under his wings (2.13). Like a tiny flightless eaglet, she was seeking safety under the enormous wings of the giant eagle. Psalm 57.1 Be merciful to me, O God, be merciful to me, for in you my soul takes refuge; in the shadow of your wings I will take refuge, till the storms of destruction pass by.Ruth took refuge under God’s wings from the moment she recognised the qualities of God in Naomi and rejected the hollowness of her nation’s idols. She fled from the useless way of life handed down to her from her forefathers (1 Peter 1.18), even at the risk of material comfort. God sheltered her and was making a new life for her. Are you under God’s wing or still on the run?

The Tide Turns for Ruth

There were some dangers in being a lone young woman roaming strangers’ fields (2.22). But in the land belonging to Boaz, a relative of her deceased father-in-law, Elimelech, Ruth found a safe place to glean. She came to that part of the field without knowing that it belonged to Boaz; only later would she look back and recognise that it was God who had directed her there. Boaz’s man in charge found out who Ruth was and noticed how long and hard Ruth worked throughout the day. When Boaz came to visit his workers he learned about Ruth and encouraged her to work behind his people where she would be safe and share the water of his team. Ruth was overwhelmed by his kindness and encouragement and Boaz reminds her that it is the wings of God that she is sheltering under. A godly man, Boaz sees God at work in these circumstances and encouraged Ruth to trust the God of Israel as her protector (2.13).

The tide had begun to turn for Ruth. What had recently seemed to be an outgoing tide of loss and adversity began to turn and fill. And something was stirring within Boaz. He began to feel protective of Ruth. He did not merely make an arrangement for a poor young foreign widow to scratch together some gleanings safely. He couldn’t take his eye off her and when it was time for a meal break he called her in to share his team’s food. He personally served her with more than she needed (which she tucked away to share with Naomi). Then, when the team went back to work, he privately instructed the team leader to make sure that Ruth not only had the fallen leftover grain to pick up, but that she should be able to glean directly from the sheaves of wheat – and more than that, he ordered the man to pull out grain-laden stalks from the bundles of barley and drop them for her to collect. Boaz admired Ruth and began to wonder how her future might be bound up with his.

Ruth returned to Naomi at the end of the day laden with grain and shared the leftovers from Boaz’s lunch. Naomi begins to see the hand of God at work directing Ruth to that field and the man Boaz. Her dark clouds of suffering and loss are opening up and shafts of light are beaming in. She explains to Ruth that Boaz is one of the men eligible to be their ‘redeemer’. Such a man had certain rights and responsibilities to the widows of his close relatives. To redeem means to buy back or recover the ownership of someone or something. The ‘redeemer’ in this sense, was a male family member with the responsibilities of getting justice for a murdered relative (Numbers 35.19); marrying the widow of a deceased brother, to raise children (Deut 25.5-10); buying back land that had been sold (Lev 25.25); buying back a family member sold into slavery (Lev 25.47-49) and looking after needy and helpless family members (Lev 25.35). Along with many other laws, the Israelites treated this law very casually and often selfishly, sometimes choosing to take up the options to recover land while ignoring the responsibility to look after needy relatives. But Boaz will prove to be a godly man who is eager to take care of Ruth and Naomi. Ruth has already witnessed his godliness shining through even in his greeting of his workers (2.4) and his interest and involvement with them in their daily work. He was a worthy and wealthy man, but humble enough to hand out the food to his workers. Boaz was a God-saturated man. God was bringing into Ruth’s life the man who would take away the bitterness and loss and give her and Naomi a future and a hope.

Ruth stuck close to Boaz’s team until the harvesting season was at an end. The relationship between Boaz and Ruth seems to have an interesting future. Their experience teaches us about what to look for in a life partner – for this is a love story. She was not attracted to Boaz for superficial reasons. It was his godliness expressing itself in protectiveness and provision. Boaz was attracted to Ruth for her selflessness and courage. But ultimately it was their shared faith in God that brought them together for an even bigger purpose than just their joy of being lovers. For those of you yet to find your life companion – your husband or wife – don’t settle for superficial. Look for godliness in your partner.

Turning Back to Go Forward

Ruth 1&2

Naomi was left alone, labouring in the fields of Moab (1.6) with two foreign daughters-in-law. Hearing better news of home, she resolved to return to Bethlehem in Judea.

When ‘life turns against us’ it is wiser to first stop and ask of God what is his purpose than it is to work out our own exit plan.

Trouble sent from God has a habit of following us until we address the concern God has about us. To stop, reflect and repent, is far safer than attempting to rearrange our circumstances without consulting God. Moving house, changing location or other drastic rearrangement of our circumstances might seem helpful, but unless God is opening the way for us it may turn out that we are moving further away from God’s help. Going back to the point where we broke our connection with God is safest.

Naomi felt deeply sad that her daughters-in-law were suffering because of her need to be disciplined by God (1.13). So she urged them to cut their ties with her, find new husbands amongst their own people and let her go back to Bethlehem alone.

Naomi’s feelings were similar to those of Jonah when on the ship fleeing to Tarsus. He realised that his disobedience was bringing trouble on everyone else travelling with him; Naomi realised that God’s discipline of her for forsaking the land and the people God had called her to, had cost her daughters-in-law dearly in the loss of their husbands. We should be concerned in case any of our disobedience is bringing down trouble on those around us – even our families.

However, Ruth had found something in Naomi that her culture could not provide. She loved Naomi and was willing to commit to her, her people and her God. Ruth had found something of even higher value to her than a husband, children and a nice home. Ruth’s story illustrates Jesus’ words:

Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls, who, on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it. (Matthew 13.45,46)

Ruth discovered in Naomi a pearl of great value – she recognised God in Naomi. She gave up everything she might have had in Moab so she could join her future to Naomi’s. Ruth had found in Naomi a quality of life that she had never encountered before. Having observed Naomi at close quarters, even when they were buffeted by grief upon grief, she recognised that Naomi was part of something much bigger, much greater and more glorious:

Do not urge me to leave you or to return from following you. For where you go I will go and where you lodge I will lodge. Your people shall be my people and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there will I be buried. May the Lord do so to me and more also if anything but death parts me from you. 1.16,17.

Ruth saw in Naomi a future, a people and above all, a God that she could not bear to be parted from – even although it required the surrender of everything she held familiar and comfortable at the moment. She had found God and rejected the hollow idols she had been raised to trust.

Each of us who comes to faith in Jesus has a similar experience. We are introduced not only to a message to people in whom that Word lives. It creates a hunger to part of it.

Naomi was repentant. She made no excuses and was not blaming God. She was clear about one thing, God had brought calamity on her and she was not ashamed to confess it to the women of Bethlehem when she returned. I suppose that originally, Naomi had hoped to return there loaded with material wealth and with a cartload of grandchildren. Instead, she went away full and was brought back empty. Although Naomi was empty, she was back to the right place and in the right frame of mind to be blessed. Repentance is like thoroughly washing out of bucket of slops so it can be filled again with rich milk.

We can be very sure of this: people observe our lives, more especially if we claim faith in God. They will be watching not only to see how things turn out for us, but also to either justify their own dismissal of God or to consider bringing their own needs to him. At this point in Naomi’s life, her observers probably felt justified in leaving God out of their thinking, but by the end of these events it will be shown that Naomi’s humbling of herself under God’s might hand saw her lifted up at the appropriate time. 1 Peter 5.6 Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may lift you up.

Back in Bethlehem, Naomi set about picking up the threads of her life. With no man to support them, they turned to the social support system of the day. It involved allowing the poor to go onto others’ fields to gather up the fragments and leftovers of crops (e.g. barley, wheat and corn) after they had been harvested. It is called gleaning and because there are only small amounts spread over wide areas of land, it was hard work for a small return; but that yield was the difference between eating and starving. Ruth willingly and promptly set about providing for Naomi and her own needs. She was determined to make the best of her new situation and worked hard at it.

Don't Run From Trouble

Ruth 1 & 2

Moving to another location did not protect Elimelech and Naomi’s family from tragedy. God was disciplining Israel with drought. Moving away from Israel did not remove Elimelech and Naomi from share in that discipline. The last verse of the preceding book (Judges 21.25) defines the problem in Israel. In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes. Everyone did what suited them. They had lost their vision for God’s work and paid no attention to his word.

Many years before, Moses had recorded for Israel God’s warnings against disobedience. These included the likelihood of famine as a direct result of neglecting God’s teaching. Leviticus 26.14ff But if you will not listen to me and will not carry out all these commandments, if you spurn my decrees and if your soul abhors my rules, so that you will not do all my commandments, but break my covenant, then I will do this to you: 20 your strength shall be spent in vain, for your land shall not yield its increase, and the trees of the land shall not yield their fruit. 26 When I break your supply of bread, ten women shall bake your bread in a single oven and shall dole out your bread again by weight, and you shall eat and not be satisfied.

God does not hide from us the miserable consequences of our sins. He often reduces and softens the severity of their consequences, but he does not remove them entirely, in case we continue on in our sin oblivious to the alienation it is causing between us and him. Much of God’s judgement is mercy. It aims to arrest us, to awaken us to our danger and turn us back towards the path of blessing.

God also uses the collapse and ruin of others to warn us away from sin. One day some people were talking to Jesus about others caught up in tragedies, such as 18 people who were crushed when a tower collapsed on them. Jesus warned them not to think that those people were worse offenders than everyone else. He said they should pay attention because unless they repent of their own sinful lives they will all lose their lives.

And God also disciplines those he loves – just as a father disciplines the children he loves.

When calamity comes we should fall on our faces before God to find out what his purpose is. Read Hebrews 12.5-11

When drought and famine came on Israel, Elimelech took his family off to greener pastures. He would have been better to have stayed where he was and repented, for God had promised to remember his covenant with them if they confessed and turned back from their rebellious ways (Lev26.40-42 But if they confess their iniquity and the iniquity of their fathers in their treachery that they committed against me, and also in walking contrary to me, so that I walked contrary to them and brought them into the land of their enemies—if then their uncircumcised heart is humbled and they make amends for their iniquity, then I will remember my covenant with Jacob, and I will remember my covenant with Isaac and my covenant with Abraham, and I will remember the land.).

Elimelech led himself and his sons into a shortened life, by failing to face up to God’s discipline.

Why study Ruth?

Ruth 1 & 2

Ruth is a story that helps us when we wonder where God is - when we’ve thought there should be miracles to help us out, but there are none (because there are no ‘supernatural’ events in this story).

It's for people who wonder where God is when one trouble or tragedy after another attacks their faith (because it begins with a series of tragic deaths in a single family).

It's a story for people who wonder whether there is any point in staying true to our Christian convictions in tough times (because in this account a young woman holds very tightly to right choices and experiences very deep joy as a result).

And it's a story for people who can't imagine that anything great could ever come of their ordinary lives of faith (because all the events in this account of Ruth are so ordinary and common as to be like pages from any family’s life – and yet they are interwoven with such iridescent and beautiful evidences of God’s grace that the lives of the people touch by him just shine with his glory in their joy).

So there is the aim of these two Sundays:

For you to understand that God can weave his glory into your everyday experience as he works out his plans for your good - so that even trouble and grief is worth enduring and joy (so real you can taste it) is attainable.